The invention concerns a cigarette vending machine according to the preamble of patent claim 1.
Generally, in the checkout area of supermarkets, basket-like shelves arranged in a grid are set up for the sale of impulse items, and in particular cigarettes. Due to the easy access to the cigarette packs at the these points, the packs can be removed without detection despite being provided, as a rule, in the area of the cash register; consequently, theft of cigarettes occurs frequently, so that the direct sale of cigarettes in this manner is no longer lucrative.
In a vending machine of the generic type with which the present invention is concerned as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,590,736, goods are held in an upright orientation by clamping springs provided on the sides and displaced relative to the discharge opening. The forwardmost article is however not held by the springs, and By an abutment flange is provided above each cigarette shaft to prevent a tipping out of the article out of the shaft. This retention means is however unsatisfactory, since a shaking of the machine, which could be produced for example by an angry cigarette vending machine, which makes possible a secure retention of the articles under all conditions.
The solution of this task is proposed by the combination of characteristics set forth in Patent claim 1. Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention can be seen from the dependent claims.
The invention is primarily based on the idea, that a secure retention can be achieved particularly when even only the front-most pack of a cigarette shaft is securely held. In accordance with the invention, the clamping spring acts on the narrow side of at least the frontmost cigarette pack. Thereby, even though a retaining action is exercised, the entire front surface of the pack remains unobscured.
Those packs which are situated in a common plane form, in accordance with an advantageous further embodiment of the invention, a row or level of packs which can be loaded with the cigarette packs and can be pulled out in a drawers-like manner within the housing. Further, a conveyor device is preferably provided in the lower front area of the housing for transporting the ejected cigarette pack into the outer area of the vending machine, for example to a cash register.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the housing has a cover element provided on its front side, preferably a glass or Plexiglas pane. This provides supplemental protection, so that the cigarette packs cannot be removed directly from the shafts. In order to be able to refill the individual shafts with cigarette packs in a simple manner from the front, the cover element is preferably mounted to the housing pivotably or foldably, for exposing the shaft levels or rows.
Since the ejection of cigarette packs occurs under force by the drive mechanism, a forward moving of the following packs by gravity is not necessary, so that the shaft levels or as the case may be the shafts can be oriented essentially horizontally in the housing.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the drive mechanism for each cigarette shaft includes preferably one electrical drive motor, as well as drive means for transmission of a drive force to a spindle or threaded rod provided below the cigarette shaft, wherein the drive means can comprise a belt, band, chain or gear drive. Further, the drive means is preferably provided with or in the form of a reduction gear.
The cigarette shaft levels have a floor preferably comprised of sheet metal, in which a slit-like guide opening extends in the longitudinal direction of each shaft for an internally-threaded drive piece of the push piece, which cooperates with the externally threaded rod.
In order to be able to introduce or, as the case may be, to remove the push piece in simple manner in the cigarette shaft, the guide opening is preferably at least on one end, preferably in the rear area of the shaft, designed to be open. It is however also possible that the guide openings respectively have a closed end and that the push piece, is comprised of two parts, which during assembly are connected through the opening. In order to make possible a simple movement of the push piece along the opening, the push piece should be introduced into the guide opening with play, i.e. loosely. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the drive piece of the push piece engages or surrounds the spindle no more than 180xc2x0, so that the push piece can be lifted out of the spindle. In this manner, when the push piece reaches its forward-most position, that is, when all cigarette packs have been ejected from the shaft, it can be rapidly pushed back to its rearward-most starting position, without requiring a time-consuming driving back to the return position by means of the drive mechanism.
An appealing presentation and an even further improved gripping or supporting of the packs is achieved thereby, that two clamp springs are provided for each shaft acting symmetrically on opposite narrow sides of the cigarette packs. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the at least one clamping spring is formed as a leaf spring extending along the longitudinal direction of the shaft, wherein the free end of the leaf spring extends in the direction of the shaft front. Hereby a guidance for the packs is supplementally achieved, in that the spring not only acts on the front-most pack, but rather also, in lesser amount, on the second and/or third pack from the front. A particularly simple construction is achieved, when the clamp spring is formed as an essentially V-shaped piece of bent sheet metal, which with its tip or apex is inserted in a slit in a shaft-divider dividing the shafts from each in the longitudinal direction. The one shank of the spring acts on the narrow side the packs in one cigarette shaft, while the other shank acts on the packs in the adjacent shaft.
The stocking or refilling of the cigarette shafts is simplified thereby, that each shaft layer is provided with two capture hooks projecting from the front-side along the edge, provided for hooking in, during refilling of the cigarette shaft, of a refilling member or bar or rod which closes off the cigarette shaft front. When the shaft layer is pulled out in the manner of a drawer, and then the refilling member is hung in on the left and right capture hooks provided outside on the shaft level, and the cigarette packs are introduced into the respective shafts, the front broad side of the respectively front-most pack lies against the refill member. Thereafter the refill member is again removed and the filled shaft level is pushed back into the housing. The refill rod can be stored in a suitable position inside the housing when not in use.
When the cover window is closed, a gap is formed between the window and the front side of the shaft levels, through which the ejected cigarette packs fall downwards onto the conveyor device. In order to prevent a hanging up or trapping of a downward-falling cigarette pack on the front side of one of the lower-lying shafts, there is preferably provided on the lower front side of respectively each shaft level a cover or orifice plate extending along the breadth of the shaft level, with an outwardly and downwardly directed, slide-forming slanted surface. The slanted surface of the cover plate is designed to project over and beyond the front-most cigarette pack situated in the thereunder lying shaft level. In order to insure a problem-free ejection of the cigarette packs in the horizontal direction, the lower edge of the orifice plate in the area of the slatted surface should have a height above the upper edge of the cover plate of the thereunder lying shaft which height exceeds the height of a cigarette pack. Preferably, the front edge of one of each cover plates exhibits a distance from the cover element or window which exceeds the thickness of the cigarette packs, so that also a sufficient gap spacing is provided for the downward-falling cigarette packs.
The conveyor device can be designed as a conveyor belt or multiple conveyor straps arranged parallel to each other, wherein the latter variant has been found to be particularly useful.
In the cigarette shafts the cigarette packs are arranged standing up and are ejected in this position. Tests have however shown, that the transport of the cigarette pack in the outer area of the vending machine is particularly reliable when the cigarette packs are oriented lying on their broad side. In order to achieve this, a slide for the cigarette packs can be provided in the area of the conveyor device, which slide tilts the cigarette packs landing on it from a standing position to a lying position for further transport.
At the output area of the conveyor device a light barrier or light sensor can be provided for detecting an outward transported cigarette pack, while in accordance with an advantageous further development of the invention a further light sensor, which is provided above the conveyor device and covers the breadth of the shaft levels, produces a turning-off signal for the drive mechanism of a threaded rod after the ejection of a cigarette pack. The light sensor provided in the output area of the conveyor device can serve for monitoring whether an ejected cigarette pack actually has been conveyed towards the outside, while the light sensor provided over the conveyor device can serve for controlling the drive mechanism after the ejection of the cigarette pack.
Further, the conveyor device can be provided with a switch or gate mechanism for transporting a cigarette pack to different destinations, in particular to two different cash registers. Hereby it is possible to service two cash registers using a single vending machine.
According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention a deposit slot is preferably on the front side of the housing for the return of erroneously selected cigarette packs, behind which there is preferably provided a collection container, removable from the housing, for receiving the returned cigarette packs. Thereby not only a logistical simplification is achieved, but rather also further opportunities for theft are circumvented.
For the selection and control of the drive mechanisms there is preferably provided a keyboard. This can be positioned at the front side of the housing or the cover element. In order to simplify the selection of the cigarette pack as much as possible, the keyboard should exhibit the same number of keys as there are shafts provided in the vending machine. In accordance therewith the individual keys of the keyboard are preferably arranged matrix-like in rows and columns according to the individual shafts, and the position of each key of the keyboard is associated with a position corresponding to a shaft.
Alternatively thereto, the keyboard can be designed as a number key pad, wherein each shaft is assigned a position number and the selection of the designed cigarette pack occurs by the keyboard entry of the position number of the appropriate shaft. In this case there should be provided in the area of the key pad or the front side of the housing a display for indicating the selected shaft or the selected shaft number, and the key pad should be provided with a confirmation key for controlling the drive mechanism of the selected shaft and the ejection of the selected cigarette pack.
If an empty cigarette shaft is selected or if a driver is inoperative, so that no pack is ejected after a selection has been made, then this fact is registered by the light detector and the drive mechanism of the shaft is turned off via the control electronics of the vending machine. The re-initialization of the drive of a cigarette shaft turned off in this manner can occur only after opening the cover element, wherein a door or cover element contact switch brings about a resetting of the disablement. Likewise, the operation of the vending machine should be prevented for safety reasons when the cover element is open for filling the vending machine. For this, a safety switch operable by the cover element, which disables operation when the cover element is opened, can be provided.
An operation of the vending machine should also be prevented when the respective cash register, in the area in which the cigarette vending machine is situated, is not open for business. For this purpose a remote control switch can be provided remote from the vending machine, preferably in the area of the cash register, for disabling or enabling use of the vending machine. A further security measure would be an acoustic indication produced by the operation of the vending machine, which signals the operating personnel that a cigarette pack has been ejected.
For logistical simplification, a counter can be provided for registering the number of sales which have occurred in the vending machine.
Besides the most common pack size, the 85 mm pack, which contains 19 or 20 cigarettes, there are also longer cigarette packs (xe2x80x9c100""sxe2x80x9d) and the so called xe2x80x9cbig packsxe2x80x9d, which contain 25 cigarettes and are dimensioned correspondingly broader. In order to also be able to offer packs of this size, at least one shaft or one shaft level should be designed for receiving these cigarette packs. By the presence of the clamping springs, it is however also possible that all shafts have a uniform breadth, wherein these springs have a sufficient stroke or travel path for taking into consideration that the broader packs could also be present in any of the various cigarette shafts.